Information Broker
by FRANZAKERS
Summary: SI. I've been living a life that's not worth living, once a hacker that grabbed every digital information in my city for sale, now a man behind a desk with no one even realizing or even remembering who I once was. Then everything changed when I died . . . and revived in another world, a world everyone considered to be utterly fictional. The world of Mass Effect. R&R
1. Prologue

Prologue

The milky way galaxy is a very vast region of space, so vast that the whole galaxy itself was not completely mapped and explored, with the regions having mass relays near or on them being the ones that are actually thoroughly explored and discovered by the various races, council or not. Thus, the known galaxy still has a spot for a particularly interested being full of wanderlust to go explore around space for the sake of adventure and discovery. The galaxy, after all, still has secrets waiting to be discovered.

Morgana however, would like this secrets would rather remain hidden from the milky way's curious inhabitants. Not just only because there is a rather big chance that these secrets would somehow threaten the safety of the said universe. After all, there is a reason these secrets are secrets aren't they? No, Morgana does not think of this as the only reason to keep the galaxy's secrets away from it's own inhabitants, the main pushing force behind this is that she herself is one of those secrets. And she has evaluated herself as a danger for the whole galaxy. Not a direct, evil, destroy-the-known-universe danger, but a danger nonetheless. The galaxy is simply not prepared for her kind, which would probably escalate to chaos if she or any of her kind would force the issue. It has already been done in the past, and the result collectively scarred the whole galaxy and gave them a mindset not to make the same mistake twice, essentially abandoning her kind for fear of the things they could do.

The events were perfectly clear and vivid on her mind, and it pains her to remember the exile of her race but nothing could be done to it now. The wound has already been inflicted decades ago, a wound that wouldn't heal so soon. Erasing the thought from her mind, Morgana simply slumped her figure in the stone throne of the place's former inhabitant's leader. The affairs of her kind doesn't affect her as much as it used to and as much as she wants to, it has been years since the even after all and she, like others of her kind, has moved on. It's not like she forgot, she simply shelved it in her mind as it obviously isn't helping her situation.

The whole cavernous building began shaking and Morgana's fingers dug into the old and brittle throne to stop herself from shaking. The whole station is slowly deteriorating as the time goes by, Morgana frowned upon realizing the fact. She had been living here for years now and it became a little bit sentimental to her, since she's been treating this old space station as her new home. Her arrival at this place was . . . unique . . . to say the least. A dying . . . human . . . was the first thing she saw, a human of whom she tried to help, but the human knew that his time has come. The last thing that the human did was to ask a favor to Morgana, asking her if she could be the . . . caretaker of this station. Having nothing to do for the next millennium, Morgana agreed, realizing that the situation was a win-win in favor of her. But the dying human also told her of one last thing, that if another human managed to find his way to this place, then Morgana should relinquish the ownership of the station to the said human. This had troubled Morgana deeply, seeing that the specifics of the other human the dying human was speaking about was totally non-existent. She was also worried about the fact that, at that time, she would then live the place. The dying man, apparently thinking of the same, told her that she could stay in this place even if the human came, if she would be a servant to the human. She was obviously shocked at this but the human, who was starting to spit a lot of blood at that time told her that the man should be 'worth the wait' as he said with a blood-smeared toothy grin. Reluctance seeped into her at that time, but curiosity eventually won out in her inner struggles and accepted the man's dying wishes. Her kind lives long anyway, and it would be better to put that to good use for the said man.

Until this day, Morgana is still waiting for the young man, but instead of getting bored or disappointed by the wait, she remained calm and her curiosity just bloomed as years went by. Living a pretty long lifespan teaches you to be patient.

She didn't know however, that the dying man's wishes are about to be granted.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter I:

There are few people in this world of ours that can be describe as 'benevolent'. Sure you can sometimes spot the living and breathing examples of a good samaritan here and there but they are rare, and most of them doesn't really fit the word benevolent like most people believe. As bad as it may sound, most people help their fellowmen because they probably are expecting some kind of compensation to their 'goodness', even if one doesn't really think of a great or concrete reward, deep down inside their mind they want a compensation even if the said compensation is not really bad. Take for example, a pretty and sexy woman that sprained her ankle would be helped by a total stranger, now don't go telling me that what that guy was thinking was _only_ to help the woman, of course there are other reasons, one that men find embarrassing to divulge to others but their most trusted buddies. And even if the reason for helping that girl wasn't lust but genuine affection, then one can conclude that the guy wants to help the gal to have a chance of becoming intimate to her and the gal to him. True benevolence is this planet called Earth is pretty much hard to come by. Some strive hard to hide their faults while others even relish in it.

Take my boss for example.

Terrence King was his name but his attitude is the opposite of Kingly, unless you mean a corrupted or evil king like those in storybooks for children. Pudgy, pot-bellied and fat, I know that those three words were pretty much synonyms but those are the only words that can describe his physical appearance without insulting him. If I want to insult him then the words would evolve to obese, oversized and pig, no scratch the last one, a pig is too slim compared to him, probably elephant or whale then. These thoughts came too mind as I waited for my boss to finish 'correcting' my work, I would use that word loosely, what 'correcting' means to him is to change every damn thing in every paperwork submitted to him by every employee working for him so that it would suit him when he submitted this works to his _own _higher-ups. Well, every employee except that newly hired woman. Oh, do I need to tell you that the woman was astonishingly beautiful?

What did I mention about benevolence and compensation again?

I let out a small sigh as the oversized man handed my folder back to me, he didn't say anything as I took my paperwork and returned to my desk without evens saying 'goodbye' or 'later' to him or something. He probably knows how most of his employees hate him, I wouldn't be so surprised if he doesn't though. The asshole only cares about himself and no one else. There is that beautiful employee though, but I don't think that what he's thinking has something to do about care.

A bored yet oddly contented look can be obviously seen on my face, it's from being used to how this office works. It's not just me though, almost all of my fellow employees has the same look, I say almost because we have a couple of new guys that were hired last week. One of them was that beautiful one that the boss seems to have perverted thoughts on. Shrugging the negative thoughts off my mind, I placed the folder back into my bag as I left the office. Our office is not exactly that big, three-stories high and too damn thin in width when compared to other corporate buildings, an irony that I first discovered when I saw the boss for the first time.

The building has no indoor garage so the employees have their car parked in a tight space in front or someplace else entirely. Mine was parked in front and I cursed silently when I saw that it was raining outside. Damn my miserable luck. First an accursed motherfucker for a boss then it's pouring raging bullets of water instead of the soft and shower like sprinkle of my idea of a rain! And add to that, as if to piss me off, the gloomy sky let off a thunder. I groaned at my terrible luck for having this kind of life as I inserted the folder inside my suit. Oh yeah, we wear freaking three-piece suits like uniforms daily, and who ordered it? Oh who else! It's not even common in the Philippines for this dress code in jobs, not considering the fact that three-piece suits cost a lot of money.

Taking a look at the darkening sky with annoyance, I could say that the weather won't get better anytime soon so waiting for it to stop is not a great option. I sprinted towards my car, the bottom part of my slacks getting really wet because of the splashes made by my quickened steps. My car was an old suzuki, so old that I forgot what the name of the car is, it was my uncle's after all and I'm not too hyped when talking about cars. The rain poured mercilessly as I fumbled with my car keys, it took a frustrating while but I finally inserted the damn key into the hole! I scrambled inside, placing the folder, which was thankfully dry, in the seat beside the driver's. My car is quite old, a gift from my uncle when I was still nineteen years of age, I'm twenty-three by the way so this car can be considered old. Well at least for me.

The city of Iligan is not as big as the city I called home but it still is quite big. Even if I've been living here for almost nine years, this city is still a place that I, to my shame, can still get lost in.

Even considering the fact that I've done more things to this city than the mayor.

As I drove towards the general direction to where my apartment is, my phone suddenly rang and sent vibrations from my right pocket to my right thigh. I took the phone out, not removing my eyes from the street as I did so, it hurts to be careless when driving. I lazily swiped the call button on the phone's touchable screen and pressed it on my ear, not even taking a look at the caller's number or name ID.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Brother!"

I grinned, it's the person that I least expected to be calling, not because the person hates me or I hate the person but because this person is more busy than me.

"Yes, little sister?"

"Oh my god! You haven't changed a bit" the person on the other line said with not a little bit of incredulity in her voice. "How's life treating you, brother?"

"Pffft, funny you'd ask" I replied, not in a rude tone but not in a kind tone either. "It's not exactly the best one, sis"

"Well, at least you're not buried in a grave of paperwork" she replied in a very displeased voice. I feel for her, probably because of the fact that she's also having problems with her job. But my sister named Shekinah Galvez is the CEO of a fairly young corporation based in the Philippines, so her problems are obviously more stressful than my problems with terrible human beings. Not that I don't count myself as one.

"Hmph, try dealing with an asshole of a boss and let's see how you fare" I said with a smirk.

"I really don't understand you-"

"Of course you don't" I said with a grin as I swerved my car to another path going to the right of my current position.

"-why do you continue to contend with a guy like that when you can easily find a job with your reputation and talents"

I nearly stopped the car in the middle of the road at what my sister said, the last words she said is in my book of 'what you don't mention or imply in a conversation". Memories of what I did for the last few years flourished into my mind, and they were more than enough to completely destroy anything positive I've been thinking for this day.

"Don't go there" I said, my voice is so low and cold that it could probably scare me if I the one on the receiving end of those words. Unfortunately it's Shekinah, which I hope would give her my desired effect.

"Fine, but remember that your certain . . . talents . . . can still be a valid source of income" she replied, probably with a sigh.

"Hmph" I said as I focused on driving back to my apartment. What my sister is talking about is the massive hacking spree that happened four years ago, the official report of the city's police mentioned of a massive breakdown in the city's wide electric circuits. The truth is far less dangerous, the truth of what happened was that there was a hacking spree that claimed dozens of information about all the inhabitants of the people living in Iligan city. Birth certificates, criminal activity, bank transactions and even daily schedules were copied and taken. To this day, none of the officials knew of the hacking, and even the city-wide blackout that was a byproduct of the wide-scale hacking.

Good thing I used my laptop on that.

Yeah, I was the one who did the hacking and I did that because I want to try how far my expertise on technology was. My original plan was to hack the digital birth records on the city hall, but I got . . . carried away and ended up hacking almost everything that is available for hacking, I say almost because I didn't hack any digital money, I still have a moral compass you know. The end result was a totally giddy nineteen year-old me with too much information dumped into my former laptop. I was so confident about my whole activity that I didn't notice that someone noticed my work, the guy turned to be another hacker like me and was surprised to find a newly minted guy like me in front of the computer. What he did next was quite surprising, he offered me a job . . . as a peddler of information to anyone who needs it. I made my presence quite known in the black market after that, selling the information I got for real money with me never showing my face and the guy acting as my visual and business liaison, my . . . representative in business transactions. The next three years was a win-win for both of us, and my nickname even got famous and can be heard among the common people, though the police and the government always there to adamantly debunk my existence as an urban legend. I stopped when I found out that my business partner was not giving me the cut that I deserve, only giving me almost a fourth of the cash while he kept the rest. I retired after that but not before I publicly placed him as the hacker that caused the blackout, I turned him into the urban legend that was actually me and exposed him for the whole world to see with all the evidence needed for the police to keep him in prison for the rest of his miserable life. And I seriously thought that he really just did what he once did for me out of the goodness of his heart, turns out that he wanted 'compensation' out of it. After that I told Shekinah the true story, finding it hard to keep my secret for myself.

A sigh on the other end of the conversation jolted me out of my thinking, and I shook my head at that.

"You'll never get over it if you'll keep blaming yourself you know" she said.

"Correction. I got over it." I replied.

"Whatever you say, bro." she said and I hear another sigh in her voice. "Oh and by the way, our reunion's nearing will you come?"

I didn't fail to notice the sudden spike of joy in her voice when she said that. I can't blame her though, I also am very eager for our reunion.

"Of course, dear sister I wouldn't mi-"

The pain was the first thing that my body received and the second was the sound of something large, heavy and firm crashing into something of the same description. I gasped and tried to suck air but my body was experiencing pain I've never felt before in my twenty-three years of existence in this planet forcing my mouth to clamp shut as I tried to endure the pain that probably cannot be endured for long. My eyes suddenly became blurry and dull as my eyelids want to close themselves even if my consciousness was still painfully awake, my mind was lively at the moment while my body is not. As such, as my eyes slowly close themselves, I could hear the faint sound of my . . . sister's voice coming from the phone in my car somewhere.

And then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter II:

My eyes opened quickly, immediately and suddenly as I gasped and lunged for air. Instincts took over me as I bolted upright, my eyes darting to my body all the while. Wait, my body? I . . . I thought . . . I thought I died?! As my eyes glazed over my skin, my skin without any open wound and bruises, the confusion only grew more and more. I mean, how could I not be confused when I was perfectly sure that I had closed my eyes for the last time back then! It took a while, but I finally willed my eyes away from looking at my body which suddenly got the last thing I wore in them, I know it may sound crazy but the clothing suddenly appeared! All suit, tie and slacks were present! When my eyes finally looked around the surroundings I froze, and I had a hard time making my mind digest what I'm looking at.

It's . . . white . . .

Everything is white . . .

I stood from my sitting position on unsteady legs, my eyes darting almost everywhere at once as I tried to make sense at my surroundings.

"And so another one appears . . ." I flinched at what I heard, or at least what I think I hear, it's still possible that everything's a dream and I'll suddenly wake up in my cozy bed. The voice that I heard was that of a man, and a baritone at that, but where I heard the voice is something that is currently a mystery to me. My eyes became more frantic as they searched for the owner of that voice. Where is he? But everywhere I look . . . It's only the white . . . No guy anywhere . . .

I inhaled and exhaled, willing myself in a state of calm. Even if the situation emits panic in everything it is but it is obvious that to understand what I'm into this time, I need to be calm.

"Ah, you're different from the ones that arrived before you" came the voice again, his very voice threatening to break the state of calmness that is difficult to build and maintain.

"W-What do you mean?" I said, better play along with this guy. It's obvious that he's the one in charge in this . . . whatever this place is.

"You're not the first, mortal. Nor will you be the last" the owner of the voice said, his voice now louder as he spoke to me. "This place is the buffer zone between your world and countless of others, many have come before, died under unfortunate events and given a choice to live in another world or continue to the afterlife of their belief"

"Y-You mean I'm dead?"

"Are you deaf, mortal?" he snarled. "Yes you are dead, and now, as I have done with countless mortals before you. I will give you a choice. Live in another world or pass to your afterlife. Live or Die."

He's voice sounded ominous to say the least, but the more important to address now is adhering to the question; Why the fuck am I so calm about all this?! I mean yeah, I forced myself into a state of calm, but even when this omnipotent being brutally said that I'm dead I'm still calm and placid! Well, I guess it's a good thing. Gives me a clear head on thinking about the last thing he said.

Live or Die.

Funny, the latter is kinda ironic considering that I'm already dead. But still . . . I haven't given much thought on my religion, and the guy said that my afterlife will depend on my religion. Damn . . . If only I had lived a pious life . . .

"I have a question, if you don't mind?" if the owner of the voice was surprised at my tone he didn't, change that, he can't show it. I, on the other hand, am surprised at how casual my tone is.

"Ask away, mortal"

"Is there . . . Is there a chance that I could return to my . . . Homeworld?" I ask, my voice maybe casual but my mind still hasn't processed the . . . absurdity of all of this.

"None"

I flinched at blunt and brutal way he delivered the word. Can't he sugarcoat it a little? I'm dead here and it won't do good for my mentality sooner or later. But well . . . he pretty much said that I can't go back. Might as well take it in as a man.

"Then I'll go to this . . . other world you're speaking of" I finally said, I have made my choice and there's no looking back. Wherever this new world I'll live in might be, I hope my life there won't be boring like my life when I was . . . still alive.

Damn, this is so hard to accept and understand! I'm dead then I'll live in another world? Sound like one of those Self-Insert fanfictions by those wistful authors on the site of the same name!

"Very well, mortal" the . . . whatever he is sounded pensive for a moment.

"A new life awaits" were the last words I heard before everything faded to black.

xXx

"Ow" was the first word that came out of my mouth as I slowly, painstakingly slowly, regained my bearings. My body was in pain, not as painful when I was . . . dying, it's more of the pain when your body is sore from a workout or something. Not that I know the feeling, I'm just assuming that this is how it feels. I've read it a couple of times in various works of literature, including fanfictions, and the descriptions were always like this or otherwise close to this. Aside from that, I once had a friend that's a martial arts jock, and he always whines about the soreness of his body. Oddly, I believe the fanfictions more instead of that friend of mine.

I shook my head even if my neck complained from the movement, I guess it's needed since my eyes are still blurry as hell. Standing on my two feet turned to be a highly difficult endeavor, my two feet wobbled and ached as they stood trying-and failing miserably-to stand firm. I massaged my eyes until they finally gave me much needed vision.

I believe my eyes are deceiving me.

I was in a cavernous place, there were no walls or even roofs, instead the sides of the place were all uneven and rough rocks. The floor-and apparently the place where I landed-was made of smooth rock, there were five odd rectangular cubes that form a semicircle in front of a . . . is that a throne? Anyway, I call the cubes odd because the first thing that came to mind when I saw them was the word 'column' but the unusual thickness of the rectangular cubes quickly brushed off that thought.

I let my eyes dart around, the dark brown hue of the rocks was a welcome change from the maddening white of the room I was in moments ago. I frowned, that white place and the accompanying voice that apparently made his home with white as a theme. What could that guy be to be able to . . . transport me to another world. He could only be an omnipresent being but surely he can't be a g-

My eyes widened as I saw a humanoid . . . figure suddenly appear in the throne made of stones in the middle of the cavernous room. What's more disturbing is that this figure was oddly feminine in shape, no scratch that, figure seems to be the more better term for description. Her skin is oddly of a violet color, with odd lines of white that looked like highly odd tattoos were seen around her . . . body. I don't know if she's wearing something that is uber tight fit or if it is her body, I deem her an odd one. Okay, why in the name of the nine Daedra of Skyrim do I always think of the word 'odd?' This is a pretty odd tendency if I may des-Dammit!

I think people will call me weird if I describe her physical appearance as a cross between a Night Elf from the Warcraft universe and Cortana from the Halo series. I blinked once or twice. Wait. I still don't know what world I am in, no change the word 'world' to the probably more accurate 'universe'.

"Excuse me, would you kindly tell me where is this place?" I asked, the woman's brilliant blue eyes widened in surprise at what I asked. I couldn't blame her, appearing in front of her metaphorical doorstep and then asking her a question with a most casual tone. Hell even I was surprised at the calmness and the casualness of my voice!

"Ummm . . . Uh . . . I don't know either" the female figure replied with certain uncertainty in her voice. Her voice. It sounded soft and calm but it also had an unusual pitch that is high, making me wonder if she'll fit the description of those bubbly and excitable girls from when I was alive. Odd.

"But you live in this place" I reasoned out. "Wait, do you?"

She shook her head to say no, to say that I'm surprised is a big lie. To say that I'm surprised because I'm not surprised at the woman's reaction is the understatement of my whole life, well at least my _new _life here. It feels very weird but I'm taking everything into stride, taking everything into account, then calculating the best course of action. It feels like . . . the old days . . . with just me, my laptop and the easily outwitted policemen and women of my city. I let out the breath I've been holding, better do what my instincts tell me to. I've trusted my instincts since I've known to say the words 'Mama' and 'Papa', and my instincts never failed me, the trust just grew when I found out what my former partner has been doing, since then I never really let my precautions and my calculations overrule my instinct. Funny to hear from a guy who outwitted policemen through sheer brainpower and shrewdness of course but what the gut says is what the man does.

"I do not live in this place" the woman said. "But I've been staying here for . . . quite a long time"

"Who are you? What are you" I asked, casualness be damned but there's bluntness too! "If you don't mind me asking of course" I added, realizing that she maybe offended at my tone of voice.

"My name is Morgana" she said, and I flinched. I know my folklore and myth. "As for what I am . . . Humans and the other Council Races, and even those Batarians do not appreciate our existence, that is all you need to know"

Humans . . . She said that as if we're not the only race in existence. Wait did she say Council Races? AND BATARIANS?

My eyes widened as realization dawned on me, those things she just said could only come from one 'Universe' and to me it sounds cool and totally ridiculous at the same time. I mean, that guy in the white room couldn't just teleport me to a 'universe' of a GAME?! And not just a game?! It's that jaw-dropping, mouth-watering, mind-boggling, heart-clenching, feel-making game called MASS EFFECT!

I must have looked like an idiot because Morgana was giving me a concerned look. I was about to say something to the woman but before words came out of my mouth, a sudden dizziness invaded my being and I remember my vision blurring and something violet rushing to me as I saw steel gray rushing to meet me.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter III:

"Ow" those two letters came out of my mouth again, but I was relieved because the ache that came with the first mentioning of the word is not present this time. I deem that a good thing. But like the first time, my eyes were blurry as hell. I desperately want them to adjust quicker because there's something in front of me that is colored in a violet hue. That's odd. I grunted, my body isn't aching but they surely felt uncomfortable at the moment, I currently feel like I'm laid down in cold, hard steel.

Wait.

Am I on the floor? But the floor-as I remember it-is made from rough, uneven rock and evidently _more _uncomfortable than what I'm currently laying on. While I'm pondering this, my eyes decided to adjust themselves in this most inopportune moment! The result was a feeling that's more uncomfortable than my own body resting on a cold, hard steel-like floor, and it was the result of a faces a mere inches away from my face. I sorely wished to blackout again OR the said face to be meters away from mine. All the whining and complaining about how uncomfortable my body is were swept under the metaphorical rug as my awfully widened eyes stared straight at the face that's _still _hovering in front of mine. The violet skin that adorned the beautiful face was a clue, the glowing white-blue lines that looked like cybernetics and the eyes of the same color were dead giveaways.

It was Morgana.

Then my brain woke up, ordering my body to scramble backwards from the increasingly awkward situation. Morgana just gave me a thoughtful, and-damn Sheogorath!-CURIOUS look as the distance between the two of us became respectful and obviously less awkward and nerve-racking. Let me tell you, dear reader, a short and meaningful story.

Once upon a time there was a hacker that lived his life in a small room with the only thing keeping him contact with the outer world was his beloved laptop that he used for hacking. He's an introvert, he's weird and he has a damnable casual way of speaking that sounds similar to an old English gentleman, as you might have guessed he doesn't have much love for love and, as you might have guessed also, that guy was me. The only action that's closes to what can be described as 'Romantic' that I've done-and has been done to me-was a sisterly hug from Shekinah.

Shekinah.

The jumbled thoughts of awkwardness in my mind stilled and then vanished just by remembering who I've left in my former world with my . . . death. My parents and my brother were long gone, leaving Shekinah as the closest thing to kin for me. I say closest because we're really not related by blood, in fact we're just friends. Two extremely close friends that we consider the other as a true sibling. And now . . . she's probably feeling guilty about what happened to me, she was the last person I'm in contact with and that's probably breaking her.

"Are you alright?" I was returned to my current situation by Morgana's three-letter question. I whipped my head at the violet colored woman, and she still had the same thoughtful expression in her face, but I also see-as I believe it to be-worry in her unusual face.

"I . . . Am not, actually" I said reluctantly, something in my mind tells me to refrain from lying to this woman. Which is a hard thing to do since I pretty much lie every five seconds or so if I don't watch myself. A hacker-especially one who was once on the run-might find lying a very useful tool for both escape and entrance purposes.

"Why?" she asked, her voice and face had a thoughtful expression. "If you don't mind me asking, of course" she added as if she was afraid to offend me or something, but, as a person, I am quite hard to offend since there are a few things that are offens-

Wait.

Weren't those the _exact_ words the one that I added when we were conversing earlier?!

I looked at the woman with a surprised and dumbfounded look but her face still looked thoughtful as she returned the favor of staring at me. Then her eyes suddenly widened and she gasped.

"Yeah, it took you awhile to realize what you ju-" I was about to tell her that it took her awhile to realize what she just did when she pointed at my feet. An arched brow on my features, I looked down at my feet but I found nothing of interest, the floor was still looking like cold, hard steel.

Then my brain just bitch-slapped me for forgetting that the floor was _supposed_ to be made of rock. Rough and uneven rock.

I looked expectantly at Morgana, hoping she had answers as to _why _the surface I'm standing is steel instead of the rock that she's currently standing on. Her vision never left my feet before she noticed my expectant look.

"What is your name?" Morgana asked, her question was totally off-topic but I suppose the question is kinda essential. She told me her name, I should have answered but I blacked out instead. Ah, the circumstances in life.

"My name is Francis Romulo Y. Ablon" I said with a little bit of awkwardness in my voice. I suppose it is because of my unusual surname and my second name, I'm a Filipino, my second and sur names are hard to pronounce to someone who's not Asian, hell even other Asians find Filipino surnames to be highly difficult to say. On the other hand, we Filipinos think of the other Asian countries' language and name with the same level; highly difficult. I saw Morgana nod at me once before she looked at the general direction where her back is facing. Morgana raised and pointed her finger at something in the distance, and I trained my eyes at where she's pointing. The throne. She was pointing at the throne made of stone in the distance, then she looked back to me with a thoughtful expression, that expression is starting to creep me out. Almost as if I am a new species to her, the only looks she's giving me are looks of curiosity and thoughtfulness, like she's studying me or something. I'm supposed to be disturbed by her looks but I know that I'm not for I also am giving her looks with expressions that are awfully close to the looks she's giving me. Hey, I have the right to be curious you know? Hell, she's a violet-skinned woman with white-blue lines that look like those cybernetic stuff from other sci-fi flicks or games and intense eyes of the same white-blue in the tattoo-like lines on her skin.

"On the throne" she said, beckoning me to the stone throne. "Sit there"

I scratched my head, this is getting odder and odder. Sighing, I walked to the throne before I was stopped by Morgana by touching my chest. Okay this is getting real weird and annoying, first she told me to sit on the throne and NOW she's stopping me. Looks like I got the misfortune of meeting this weird woman.

"Look at the floor you're standing on" she said. An arched brow was my reply before I looked out below. And like before, the floor was still steel.

Wait.

I'm sure that the floor I'm stepping on shouldn't be steel, since the only part of the stone floor that should be steel was the one that I laid on. So now, my brain is asking the question; 'How in the name of heaven and hell is this floor steel when it SHOULD be stone?!'

"Quick, to the throne!" Morgana said, in a-is that excitement I hear in her voice?.

Heeding what she said, I jogged straight to the throne. My eyes never leaving the floor, my eyes widening as every step I place on the floor _erases_ the stone that was present on it, leaving the gray steel on the floor's surface. This is very very weird! But even if my mind is bamboozled by all sorts of oddities, I trudged on. Determined to sort this ridiculous situation I am in, that and the natural curiosity of every human being. When I reached the throne, I hesitated. What if something awfully wrong will happen when I sit on the throne? What if I burst into flames or get devoured by rocks? What if the stone throne is rigged with traps designed to turn me into 'Francis Chops'? What if . . . What if Morgana plans to kill me? 

With that last thought, my paranoia reawakened.

Living a life on the run will surely give you that, and even if the police didn't really know what my face looks like, they've got a few close shaves with some of my former safehouses. That made me paranoid enough to place five CCTV's, at _least_, in every place that I decided to stay on in more than two days. Now that the last piece of my mentality was with me, I reevaluated the situation I am in. Okay, I died and woke up in the universe of Bioware's greatest game; Mass Effect. The current place I'm in is totally unknown to me, this place is not shown in any of the three games. The only other point of interest surrounding myself is the woman who introduced herself as Morgana. To my knowledge, her physical appearance doesn't match any known species in this galaxy. Unless she's a pre-space race like that Yahg that became the Shadow Broker, now that I think about it this universe has a healthy number of information brokers, with the Shadow Broker in the top of the food chain. I shook my head, there's no time for those thoughts now. But if Morgana turned out to be an enemy then I'm in serious trouble because of many reasons. First because of the fact that she knows this place inside and out, while I'm pretty much clueless about everything here. Secondly, even _if_ I survive a confrontation with a species with abilities I'm totally _clueless_ about the chances of escape is slim, since only Morgana knows of this place. Thirdly, and probably the reason that I'm doubting if it should be valid, is her name. As I've said before, I know my folktales and myths and the name _Morgana_ isn't exactly a heroine or a damsel in distress, that name is quite the contrary to those. So the only thing I could do now, as much as I hate it, is to _trust_ her.

I inhaled sharply and exhaled loudly, looking around to find an expectant Morgana looking at me patiently. A deep breath is all that I need as preparation before I sat myself on the throne. I held my breath, fully expecting myself to be scorched in any moment now. But as much as my paranoid brain expected-and probably _wanted_-myself to be in the middle of a combustion, it didn't happen. A sigh of relief escaped my lips, as I realized that I'm out of danger.

I really am stupid for jinxing myself like that so easily!

Tremors started to be felt all around the room, but a cold lump formed in my throat when I realized that the epicenter was the throne. I struggled to keep myself from tumbling out of the stone throne, digging my fingers on the apparently smooth rock formations on the throne's arms. I looked at Morgana, to see if she had any part in this mess but my paranoia was apparently just paranoia, as she too was struggling to stay standing. Because I looked at her, I almost didn't see the changes that the room was undergoing.

Starting from the throne I was sitting on.

My eyes widened in amazement and shock as the throne that was _supposedly_ made of rock began chipping away. At least the rock parts. They removed themselves from the throne as if their dust, fading into particles as soon as they have lost contact with the whatever this thing I'm sitting on is. The fingers that I dug into the rock were suddenly freed, accidentally touching the smooth surface underneath all those stones. Now that the stones were nothing but dust that soon vanished, the only thing left on the throne was true structure of the throne; Steel. All over the large cavernous hall, brown rocks and stones chipped away, revealing steel surfaces underneath it. The five rectangular pillar-like cubes started collapsing as the tremors continued, but before they could collapse and impact the, now, completely steel floor, they turned into small particles of dust that eventually vanished. Unlike the floor and the walls, the five rectangular cubes revealed a cylindrical, slightly thin, black hued pillars inside each one of them. Then, as suddenly as it began, the tremors stopped. Leaving me panting, in panic or fear I don't know, on the throne. My fingers starting to feel pain as I remembered that I was tightly gripping the sides of the arms of the throne during the whole . . . restructuring of the whole hall. I looked at the newly rock-free hall, the floor was all gray steel while the curving walls made the whole room circular in appearance, if you look at it from above though. How do I know that it looked circular when I don't have a view from above? Simple. I'm awesome and let's leave it at that. Then my eyes wandered to a certain violet-skinned woman massaging her head as she tried to stand up.

"Are you alright?" immediately bolting from my seat to help her stand up. Paranoia or not, I find myself disgusted if I can't help a woman in obvious need. Sure, she doesn't need much help aside from standing but hell I still had an urge to help. But before I got near her, another weird thing happened.

The five cylindrical pillars left from the stone rectangle cubes began . . . humming. Their tops popped up higher, a red line showing in the middle of the elevated part and the rest of the pillar below. The humming got louder as the red lines glowed red, the glow similar to neon lights. For the second time today, I found myself in amazement and surprise as the glowing lines from each of the five pillars _projected_ a single, large, rectangular screen in the front of the pillars, the screen is as large as the combined length and width of the five pillars. To me, that screen looked like a hologram. Which it probably is. I was about to close my mouth and walk to it when it-like a TV-showed . . . someone in it's large screen. If this fanfiction has audio, then I probably sounded doubtful and uncertain when I narrated the word 'someone'.

. . . Oh. Right. No breaking the fourth wall.

The screen showed a man sitting in an awfully familiar seat made of steel. I find the man to be very . . . peculiar. Yes, peculiar, that's the only thing aside from 'weird' and 'odd' that could properly describe him. Dressed in a gray colored suit with a black-probably-long-sleeved shirt underneath it and slacks in the same color as the suit. Those looked pretty normal! In the classic age or in the 21st century anyway, from what I remember, Mass Effect is based on the _22__nd_century. Then let's move to the describable things about the man that were odd both in the 21st _and_ the 22nd century. A gray necktie can be clearly seen on the man's chest, but there's a . . . rose pinned on the lower end of the necktie that was . . . changing color every now and then. Adorning the man's head was a gray fedora hat, sure that looked normal, if it didn't have the color-changing rose on it! Then there's the man's face.

The man's masked face.

I don't know what made me suddenly think of a comic book character, but the guy's white, skin-tight mask made me think of the Question or perhaps Watchmen's Rorschach. The only feature of the mask was a pretty yet unnerving, golden colored butterfly, the whole butterfly dominating the face. But the butterfly also looked different, as if it was just a shape then it was filled with the shiny color of gold; no features present on it. He was seated on the steel gray seat-which I concluded to be the throne on this very place-in a most comfortable position. Arms rested on the throne's arms in a relaxing manner with his right leg crossed up on his left in a very gentleman-like manner.

"Who . . . are you?" was the question that I wanted to ask ever since I saw that highly unusual mask.

"To the one who has arrived at my base and reactivated the systems that allowed you to see me, I bid you a welcome" the man said, or the video of the man said, since it's obvious that it's a recording. "As you might have guessed, this is a recording and to answer the question that I predicted to be the question you'll ask; my name is Hypnos." the man paused, as if to let that information sink in. One of my brows were arched up in surprise and in appreciation of the man's, Hypnos', shrewdness. He predicted the question that I asked, which is obviously an easy one to predict, even I could predict that question to be the first question one would ask if I was dressed like him.

"I pride myself as a merchant . . . of information. One that could match the broker of shadows, my rival, in ability, but not in reputation. Especially since my hated rival dirtied my reputation" I sense a sneer in his voice upon mention the Shadow Broker when he said that the Shadow Broker dirtied his reputation. This guy speaks in riddles, which I like and occasionally, and gladly, do back in the time when I was outwitting the police. "I am currently in a shadow war with my rival, and despite my knowledge of his ways, I am slowly losing, thus the purpose of this recording." Hypnos stared at the camera and into _me_, as if he _knew_ where I'm standing on. "The purpose of this recording is to continue my shadowy legacy, to raise my heir, to continue what I've started." my eyes widened at this. "To create a new Hypnos, like how my predecessors has done" I looked at the screen in shock and awe and surprise. I turned around and looked around the whole hall again for the third time, this time in a new perspective. This is the lair of the guy who rivaled and paralleled the power of the Shadow Broker without brokering a reputation, which to me, is the true meaning of power of an Information Broker. And now . . . he's giving me his power, passing on his knowledge and his network. Funny how my former job and hobby when I was still in _my _Earth was being given back to me this time, in this world from the game of Mass Effect.

"I understand that this may seem like a shock to you, potential candidate. Especially if you have no clue to being an information broker or, if you have a clue to what an information broker is, if you have no clue to who I am and what I'm capable of" Oh if only you knew Hypnos, if only you knew. "I understand your doubts now, but I have no choice but to give you this responsibility" I exhaled, I am prepared for this. Returning to my former job, I never thought that it would be like this, in another world. "But before I give you that, for security purposes, I give you ten challenges that hides my agendas in them. These challenges compose of one that is mandatory, the security purpose,and the other nine are optional, though I implore you to complete all of them"

Wait what? Ten challenges?

That is . . . quite shrewd. Ten challenges made for the one that will take his mantle, or his suit, one that is mandatory which is obviously gonna be difficult and nine others that would show his agendas and crucial information perhaps? That's what I'll reward in the nine challenges if I was the information broker in this situation.

I smiled at the holographic screen, a smile that I'm sure was a mix of mischievous and wolfish.

Challenge accepted, Hypnos.

"The first challenge is a very simple question" Hypnos said, relaxing back in his throne as he said it. Then he looked at somewhere beside me . . . where, to my absolute surprise, Morgana was standing. "This is the question; What is that being beside you?" and just like that Hypnos crossed his fingers, lounged back to his throne and the holographic screen vanished as a holographic, omni-tool-like keyboard appeared in the base of the black pillar in the middle.

I slowly looked at the woman beside me and for the first time, her eyes held shock and surprise in them instead of the thoughtfulness and curiosity that I always see.


End file.
